forgive me

Photograph take by Emily Jacir, the sky and smoke above Bethlehem, 2024

Palestinian artist Emily Jacir (I wrote an art story for her work Memorial here) posted these words and a heartbreaking recording on IG today of a father and his children calling out to each other as they were being bombed: “They murdered their father. Day after day after day after day the world does absolutely nothing.”

It was a despairing lament thrown out to the world and it hit me as the words came to me, “We have not forgotten.” Even as the end of the year comes and Christmas is a few days away, this felt like a plea and reminder to not forget what is happening in Gaza. There is a reason why after the Holocaust in WWII the words “Never again.” and “Never forget.” were spoken and written and passed down through generations.

I wrote this poem a while ago, needing to say something, again using some of the words of a Palestinian man going through this horror:

forgive me, he wrote,
for interrupting your day
but we are being killed—
I cannot find the words 
but those I read daily
and the images 
I can never unsee
and they haunt 
as they should—
forgive me 
for interrupting—
of flames
of hands reaching out
of tents burning
and so many
trapped inside
of the screams 
and cries
an unending sorrow
a grief 
that can never 
be assuaged—
forgive me—
will this never end?